Heat management devices in the form of heat sinks are known in a multitude of configurations that are commonly used in the electronics industry to prevent overheating and consequent damage to heat producing solid state devices and the like. In this regard, all heat sinks have similar attributes, namely good heat conductivity, a body member attachable to a circuit board and to which the devices may be attached, and a finned radiator member for expelling heat received from the devices.
When a heat sink is used for an individual device, or for a small number of devices, it is often possible to position the heat sink such that a clear tool access thereto is available for either installing or removing one or more devices. This is required from time to time as when testing or replacing defective devices. There are occasions, however, especially on crowded circuit boards, that an advantageous placement of the heat sink is not feasible, in which case the removal and reinstallation of devices on the heat sink becomes problematic.
The aforedescribed problem is particularly severe in circuits where a longitudinally extended heat sink is used to separate and also electrostatically shield small signal control circuits from large current handling devices such as rectifiers and switches In this circumstance, the heat sink often partitions a circuit board in such a way that an advantageous placement of the heat sink for easy accessibility to its devices may not be feasible. This situation is especially aggravated when the circuit board is crowded with components which obstruct access to device mounting surfaces on the heat sink.
During manufacturing assembly, the foregoing type of circuit arrangement does not usually present a problem since devices would be initially mounted on the heat sink to form a separate subassembly and therefore would be readily accessible. Subsequently this subassembly would be installed on the circuit board followed by soldering electrical connections thereto. A major problem will occur later, however, for a quality control group of the manufacturer who may be required to remove either the entire heat sink subassembly or some number of components mounted on the circuit board in order to gain access to a defective device mounted on the heat sink. The problem is particularly exacerbated when service problems arise in the field where sophisticated desoldering equipment of the factory is unavailable.